Send Gift Baskets to Tarnowskie Gory, Poland

Over 20 thousand years ago, Tarnowskie Góry was inhabited by the earliest human settlements. Within the present-day town boundaries, traces of Upper Paleolithic residents have been found in the village of Rybna. During the Bronze Age, people lived along the banks of river Stoła (Polish) or Stola (name derived from German Stollenwasser Adit water formerly known as “Rybna” (derived from a Polish word for “fish”), and their tools, jewelry, and weapons have been found here, dating from the 8th to 5th centuries B.C. Silver, lead, and zinc were abundant on these grounds, and evidence of early metal production dates back at least to the 3rd century A.D.

A Lechitic Polish tribe inhabited the region in the Middle Ages, and in the 10th century, it became part of the emerging Polish state under Mieszko I. The village of Repty Pilosie, now part of Tarnowskie Góry, was mentioned in an official papal document dated September 12, 1201. Currently, an archaeological site occupies the ruins of a 14th-century motte-and-bailey castle in Stare Tarnowice. When Rybka discovered a strange, heavy, metallic stone near the village of Tarnowice in 1490, the source of silver ore (which accounts for the town’s existence) was discovered. Within less than three decades, this place became the area’s most important silver mining center after he presented his find to a local priest. As a result of its massive ore, which was so high that on many occasions it was said to be practically pure, metallic silver, it rivaled some of the world’s major cities in terms of population, and prospectors came from all over the continent, some even from Spain.

The town’s initial growth can be attributed to Jan II the Good, the last Duke of Opole and Racibórz, and George, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach (from the House of Hohenzollern), who granted the town special privileges in 1526 called the “Akt Wolno*ci Górniczej” (The Miners’ Freedom Act). By signing this revolutionary document, any peasant who became a miner in the area was granted freedom; that same year, Tarnowskie Góry was officially elevated to town status and received additional privileges and rights; a coat of arms and official seal followed a few decades later in 1562.